Volunteer firefighter dies while on callCROWNSVILLE -- A...

MARYLAND/REGIONAL NEWS

CROWNSVILLE -- A volunteer Anne Arundel firefighter collapsed and died Saturday night while at the scene of an emergency call.

William W. Overman Jr., 43, responded with the Herald Harbor Volunteer Fire Company to a report at 10:12 p.m. of smoky odors in a home in the 900 block of Indian Creek Lane. No fire was found, a fire department spokesman, Capt. Gary Sheckells, said yesterday.

Minutes after the fire engine arrived at the scene, Mr. Overman walked to the rear of the vehicle and collapsed, Captain Sheckells said. He was taken to North Arundel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Although police reported Mr. Overman had a history of diabetes and heart trouble, Captain Sheckells said the fire department is awaiting a medical examiner's report on the cause of death.

Mr. Overman, who had been a member of the Herald Harbor station for three years, was training to become a certified firefighter.

County could lose 2 shelters for families

CARROLL COUNTY

WESTMINSTER

WESTMINSTER -- Carroll County could lose its two single-family shelters unless the agency can raise $32,000 this year to pay the bills, says Sylvia Canon, director of Human Services Programs of Carroll County Inc.

Last year, a single donation of $32,000 saved the shelters, she said. But she said that she doesn't know who the donor was and that money is running out after a year's utilities, salaries, insurance and an $800 furnace repair were paid.

While the history of the money crunch lies in a competitive and political state process of awarding federal grants, Ms. Canon said, the future lies in raising the money locally, especially through churches and community groups.

"We're down to the pennies here," she said, adding that only $3,000 is left in the fund for the shelters.

Commissioner favors garbage composting

WESTMINSTER

WESTMINSTER -- Garbage composting should be studied as an alternative to burning trash for energy, says Commissioner Julia W. Gouge, resisting an idea being pursued by the other commissioners.

"My concern is that we're not looking hard enough at other alternatives," Mrs. Gouge said. "We keep talking about incineration, and the expense is astronomical. I'm just not sure that is the way we want to go or should be going."

The county composts yard waste, but mass composting would include all kinds of garbage.

Frank Gouin, a horticulture professor and composting expert at the University of Maryland, said garbage composting can reduce a municipality's trash by as much as 80 percent.

Two are injured in accident on I-95

HOWARD COUNTY

GUILFORD

GUILFORD -- A 28-year-old Maryland woman was seriously hurt in a two-car accident on Interstate 95 yesterday morning when the speeding Pontiac in which she was a passenger ran into the back of another car, state police reported.

The 9:40 a.m. accident shut down the southbound lanes of I-95 for about a half-hour, police said.